The phenomenon that is Barack Obama evolved in response to the cry of the people, the many looking for a new leader to save the day.

In the context of America’s hour of desperation neither Hillary Clinton nor John McCain will do. We know who Hillary Clinton and John McCain are. They could try and redefine themselves to suit the times, but they are too much a part of the American political narrative to shape-shift into the formula America needs in its President at this moment in historical time.

The brilliance of the candidacy of Barack Obama is that Obama represents the new America: America, the land of the free, the home of the brave and the homogenized, a kaleidoscope of ethnicity no longer dominated by the pasteurized white, the house of the Republican brand.

A large part of the success of Obama’s candidacy, therefore, is that he is both black and white yet he hasn’t allowed himself to be painted either liberal or moderate. He can be appealing both to young and old and everyone in between. He stands for everything and nothing. Where once we were polarized by our differences and therefore separate and alone, Obama offers us something we haven’t had in a long time, a chance at unity.

Which is why so many are jumping onto the Obama bandwagon lapping up Obama’s warm milk and cookies: a hundred thousand attend a rally here, one hundred and fifty thousand there. Americans are looking for a new father of our country, and a mother as well. Obama is both: an androgynous candidate equally macho, and interestingly effeminate. He is a product of the realigning of the sexes in American culture; like too many men, he was raised by strong, independent women and absent the testosterone lessons of a present father.

In these turbulent times his voice is strong but even-toned; when he speaks his words are like a Brahms lullaby, lyrical and engaging, soothing even soporific like a mother’s teat filled with the warm milk that eases an infant to sleep. Obama is a trip to Canaan, a ticket to the land of milk and honey.

It would be difficult to imagine an Obama candidacy rising to such success in other times, which makes one wonder as to the true brilliance of the Obama candidacy when compared to the candidacy of Barack Obama being a result of the times.

Change is here and now. We’re about to go from the bottle to the glass, from the crib to the big person’s bed. Like children, some of us are ready, willing and able to embrace change, while others are afraid to wear fancy pants.

But change is inevitable; John McCain knows this as Hillary Clinton learned it. And as Hillary so ably and quickly adapted to the new, should McCain lose his bid for the presidency, as he likely will, he will quickly adjust, too.

Of course, Americans shouldn’t expect too much from an Obama presidency. The days ahead will be fraught with peril. President Obama will be tested as his running mate Joe Biden warned us. It’s never smooth sailing to move from the crib to the bed, or give up the milk bottle for the glass. And there will be little time to cry over spilled milk if all doesn’t go according to plan.

But should the transition from the old to the new get too perilous, Americans shouldn’t fret. Because there will be the seasoned Hillary Clinton and John McCain in the Senate, thank goodness, to help clean up the neophyte’s mess when it becomes necessary. You can bet the milk jug on it.

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